Preptel Is Shutting Down Its Service on August 30

Resume writer Robin Schlinger received this email from "The Preptel Team," yesterday, although no mention of this is on their website yet.

Dear Customers,

We appreciate all your support during these past few years while we created and updated our service.

We founded this company and solution to help candidates. Over $4 billion dollars are being spent by corporations to help filter and rank candidates. We believed analogous software was needed to create an equal playing field. We set out to ensure our software worked, and we enlisted industry analysts to test it.

Most importantly, we developed relationships with leading resume writers and career coaches from associations, such as Career Directors International and the National Resume Writers Association. In collaboration with this special people, we made many improvements to the system.

Unfortunately, the cost model and the revenue models never lined up. After running 3 years in the red, we are disappointed to inform you that we have had to shut down the service. We apologize for the inconvenience and again thank you for your support.

Please download your résumés to your computer by Friday August 30, 2013 when the service will no longer be available. For details about how to download your résumés, please see this help article: <https://preptel.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/240197-how-do-i-download-my-r%C3%A9sum%C3%A9s-> How to download my résumés? 

Regretfully,
The Preptel Team 


This is very disappointing, as the Preptel service was one of the best sources for resume writers and jobseekers to test client resumes to see how they would perform in Applicant Tracking Systems.

It's not surprising, however, because I was never sure what the Preptel revenue model was. When they first launched, the service was paid (I believe there was a free trial period), but in recommending it to colleagues and clients in the November 2012 "Jobseeker's Guide to Applicant Tracking Systems," it was a free service.

I'll have to do some research and see if there are any competitive services to recommend to check resumes for ATS submission. If you know of any, please leave the information in the Comments below.

What do you think of this announcement?